


a (duck) tale of two siblings

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Give Us the Stars [2]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Dad!Donald Duck, Gen, Gravity Falls AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-14 13:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18477085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Della slammed the final button in the power-up sequence. “I need to do this, Donald.”“Della –“She ran through the control room door into the room where the portal was sparking to life. The control panel was making fizzy, crackly sounds that it was definitely not supposed to make. Della lost her footing as the portal finally opened – looking like a strange, upright puddle glowing faintly – and she was swept up in a rush of wind as it began to suck everything in.“Donald!”





	a (duck) tale of two siblings

**Author's Note:**

> After a bit of a delay, part two of the gravity falls AU!!  
> OC Webby's mom (Letitia, mentioned in the previous fic) is a big player in this story, since this features a lot of flashbacks to when Donald and Della were younger. I skimmed some of the details about her/Beakley's place in the wider story, so if you want to hear more about the Beakley-Vanderquack story in this AU let me know.  
> The story alternates between one scene (more or less) in the present and a pretty wide span of time in the past.
> 
> I would like to apologise in advance to the person who I promised that Launchpad would be in this - he has a cameo, but somehow despite my best efforts still really isn't present in a significant way. Launchpad = Soos was the 2nd note I ever made for this and I feel like I failed in that. I'll try better next time.

“Della.”

Her eyes fell on a man who – despite years and tired eyes and tears – was unmistakably her brother. “Donnie?”

He stumbled forward, wiping away the blood from a cut on his cheek. He paused, though, when a small voice said, “Dad?”

Donald crouched next to a young duck who was curled on the floor. “I’m here, Hue. Are you alright? Are you hurt?” The boy mumbled something, and Donald pulled him into a hug, whispering apologies.

Della was hurt, initially, that she wasn’t her brother’s priority after all this time. But as she looked around, she began to take in the destruction in the room. The portal pulled at the strings of reality, and it was clear that it had thrown everything and everyone wherever it wanted. Uncle Scrooge stood with Bentina Beakley at the back of the room; both were staring at Della with looks of shock, like they could hardly believe it had worked even though they’d been the ones to bring her home. There was the child in Donald’s arms, of course, but another two huddled together a few feet away from Della – a girl in a purple skirt and a boy in a green hoodie – and a fourth in a blue t-shirt closer still. This fourth child was looking up at Della with a look of mixed shock and confusion.

Donald stood and continued walking toward Della, pausing again as he passed the green and purple children to check on them. He spoke to them in a low voice, arm around the girl’s shoulders and free hand on the boy’s cheek. When he straightened up again, he didn’t stop.

He walked right up to Della and punched her.

By the time Della had recovered, Donald was sitting on the floor with the boy in blue. They were both crying.

“Shh, shh, shh, Dew, it’s okay,” Donald was whispering, “it’s over. I’m here.” He rubbed the boy’s back in slow, comforting circles. “I’m so sorry.”

“What the hell, Donnie?” said Della, one hand on her cheek and the other on her hip.

“What the _hell,_ Dell?” Donald snapped back. He squeezed the boy and stood up again to look her in the eye. “Were you expecting a hug?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Too bad.”

\--

When Donald and Della were four, they moved in with their Uncle Scrooge in his mansion in Duckburg. He took them on (some) adventures starting when they were eight, which was probably too soon.

Donald thought, watching his thirteen-year-old sister flip through a manual on piloting the airplane that Scrooge had promised she could start learning to fly by their next birthday if her grades kept up, that it was _definitely_ too soon. Whoever thought it was a good idea to let a world famous explorer and adventurer with a reckless streak a mile wide raise two children – and, perhaps more so, whoever had agreed with them and let it happen – needed to stop and rethink their life choices. The adventures were fun and they always found something interesting, but it still wasn’t really what kids their age should be getting into.

Della in particular had no business flying planes as a thirteen or fourteen-year old.

She looked up at him and snapped the book shut. “Don. It’s no different than you sailing us here and yonder.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Donald said.

“You’re glaring a hole in my book,” replied Della, waving it at him.

“I was not.” Donald rolled his eyes. “But _no_ , it’s not the same! A boat cannot _fall out of the sky_!”

“I’m not going to fall out of the sky! I’ll do all my reading and research and I’ll train with professionals,” said Della. She scooted closer to her brother, elbowing him. “I’ll be the best pilot _ever!”_

“Yeah,” Donald admitted, “you probably will.”

Della punched the air and then launched herself at Donald, ruffling up the feathers on top of his head. “I knew you’d come around!”

\--

The family had moved upstairs into the living room, taking time to check on each other and patch up small injuries. Della curled on an armchair, her knees pulled to her chest. As Donald moved from child to child smoothing feathers, giving bandages, and kissing bruises like the boys were still toddlers, he felt his sister’s eyes on him.

“Dad?” Louie whispered while Donald checked him for injuries, “Who _is_ she?”

Donald rocked back on his feet from a kneeling position into an unstable squat. “I think it’s time for an introduction.” He glanced back over his shoulder at Della and jerked his head toward the kids. She slid off of her chair and crawled over next to him. “Dell, these are my sons. Huey,“ he pointed to the boy in red, “Dewey,” blue, “and Louie,” green. “Boys, Webs, this is my sister. Della Duck.”

Webby gasped. She was sitting at her grandmother’s feet, and when Donald and Della both turned toward her at the sound, she curled in on herself self-consciously.

“What’s your name?” Della asked gently.

“Webby.” She smiled nervously. “Webbigail Vanderquack.”

“Letty’s Webby?” Della whispered to her brother. When he nodded, she looked back at Webby. “I know your parents. I remember when you were born. You’re – you’re so big now.” Her eyes moved back to Donald’s sons. “You’re all so big now.”

“Aunt Della?” Huey said, drawing the attention of all of the adults and a slight wince from the one in question. “Did you ever meet us?”

“I – you were eggs when I left,” Della answered, frowning. “You were with your father the last time I saw you. Donald, where’s Carl?”

“Not in the picture,” Scrooge interjected from the couch.

“I asked Donald.”

“Well –“

“It’s fine, Uncle Scrooge,” said Donald. “Dell, he’s a friend still, but the kids don’t really know him.”

Dewey leaned forward. “I can’t help feeling like you guys aren’t telling us something.”

“Why, Don?” Della asked, as if she hadn’t heard Dewey.

“I gave him an out and he took it,” said Donald. He shook his head. “You two weren’t ready to be parents _together_ , he wasn’t going to be able to handle it on his own.”

“And _you_ were?”

“Guys!” Huey interrupted. “ _What_ is going on?”

\--

“An old partner told me that there’s an interesting anomaly showing up in central Oregon, I’ve been meaning to go investigate it but I wanted to wait for the two of you to be home,” Scrooge said over breakfast. It was summer break after Donald and Della’s freshman year of college, the first morning that they were both home. This was the first year they’d ever gone to different schools. Della hadn’t arrived until late last night and Donald was itching to tell her about his year, but Scrooge had brought up adventuring and now Donald wasn’t going to be able to get a word in about anything else for at least a week.

“Can’t adventure on your own anymore, old man?” Della teased.

“I merely find it easier not to deal with your _whining_ when you find out I’ve gone adventuring without you,” Scrooge answered, grinning. “And, anyway, it’s more cost-effective to have one of my research assistants fly the plane.”

“Yeah, yeah, cost effective,” said Della, rolling her eyes.

“Research assistants?” Donald repeated, resisting the urge to groan audibly. He could’ve been going on his own adventures with his own friends this summer, and yet – the chance for something new and different was tempting, and he could see that gleam in his sister’s eye. “Is that what you’re calling us now?”

And that was how they first came to Gravity Falls. Unlike so many other adventures, though, once they arrived they didn’t leave. It wasn’t treasure they were after anymore, just a general pursuit of the weird – and Gravity Falls was _full_ of weird. Scrooge bought a house just outside of town – a rundown building they fixed up as a family that Donald dubbed ‘the mystery shack’ – that became their summer home. They kept in touch with the company, and more importantly Scrooge’s gadget guy Gyro, but largely they lived their summer out in relative isolation. Scrooge had set a firm no-international-calls rule, which left Donald bored and more than a little lonely. He and Della were, as such, more inclined to wander into town to make friends and explore than Scrooge, who was wholeheartedly focused on the mystery of the Gravity Falls woods, which were full of magical creatures and amber-frozen dinosaurs and odd pockets of gravitational anomalies.

Scrooge always seemed surprised to find them sitting at a diner table with a local friend – Donald would be surprised if Scrooge could name any of their friends, despite how many times he’d been introduced. His eyes always seemed to skate across them like they were complete strangers.

“What are you guys even doing here?” Letitia Beakley asked over lemonade one hot afternoon. “Like, really. Mum said you were researching or something, but what could possibly bring Scrooge Mc-goddamn-Duck to Gravity Falls, Oregon of all places?”

Donald shrugged. “Spooky woods. It all just _screams_ ‘adventurers come visit’ – at least to Uncle Scrooge and my sister.” He elbowed Della. “She’s always got an eye for the dangerous ones.”

“What about you, Donnie? Don’t consider yourself an adventurer?” Letitia prodded, grinning.

“I’m just along for the ride.”

“Aw, don’t be modest, Donald,” said Della, “you’re usually driving.”

\--

“I told you,” Donald said, shaking his head, “I told you there were things I should’ve told you that I hadn’t. Well –“ he waved a hand at Della, “my sister is one of them”

“I’m your mother,” Della told them.

Webby exchanged a significant look with Dewey, Huey frowned, and Louie whispered, “ew.”

Donald laughed, slightly hysterical. “Strictly, _biologically_ , speaking, I’m your uncle. Della and her ex _-_ fiancé are your biological parents.”

“Why do you keep saying it like that?” Della’s eyes hadn’t left her brother.

“Because, _legally_ , I’m their father,” Donald answered firmly. “And by, you know, actual relationship. Since I’m the one who’s been on earth all this time.”

“Aunt Della?” Dewey piped up, and the choice cut through the room like a knife. “Where have you been all this time?”

\--

The family left at the end of the summer, when Donald and Della went back to college for sophomore year and Scrooge returned to Duckburg to run his company. Through the whole school year, all Donald could think about was returning to the odd little town and the closest to a normal life he’d had since moving in with his uncle. Sure, they’d spent their days hunting monsters and tracking improbabilities, but he and his sister had gotten to hang out with other teenagers and do dumb teenage stuff together. He was doing plenty of dumb teenage stuff with Zé and Panchito at school, but it felt good to have some normal fun with his sister.

Donald and Della didn’t even return to Duckburg at the end of this school year, instead flying into the small airport a few towns over from Gravity Falls and getting picked up by Letitia and her beau Frank Vanderquack. Scrooge was waiting for them on the mystery shack porch when they arrived, and barely gave them time to thank Frank and Letty for picking them up and bid them goodbye before he whisked them away into the woods.

And so their second summer in Gravity Falls went – much like the first, although Della struck up a flirtation with Frank’s friend Carl and she and Letitia started trying to set Donald up with anyone their age who’d stand still long enough.

By the third summer it was all routine, and come the fourth Donald and Della had graduated from college and found themselves facing the rest of their lives. Donald had quietly gotten his own place in Gravity Falls, a little cabin facing the lake. He was sure Della would want to keep adventuring with Scrooge, that maybe she’d come back to the falls in her summers still, but he was happy to finally have his _own_ home base, where he could see his local friends and have school friends up to visit and monitor the weird in his spare time.

There was a tap on the doorframe to the open front door. Donald looked over his shoulder.

“Have you told D you’re moving?” Letitia asked.

Donald set his field journal down on the table and sighed. “Not yet. She’ll want me to keep going and going and going, and I dunno if that’s something I want to keep doing you know?”

“You and D have always struck me as the ‘tell each other everything, grew up in each other’s pockets’ kind of twins,” Letitia replied, fussing with the hem of her skirt as she spoke. “How could you tell _me_ before your own twin sister?”

“Because I bought the house from 22 months ago, and _she_ told you, because she knows we’re friends,” Donald replied. “You mentioned it to Della.”

“I didn’t know she didn’t know!” said Letitia.

“It’s fine, Letty,” said Donald, waving her off. “You’ve saved me from telling her myself.”

“Didn’t you want to?” Letitia asked, finally moving all the way into the house and sitting down across from Donald.

“I did,” he picked his journal up again, running his fingertips over the edges of the sailboat he’d painted on the blue-green cover in gold paint, “I do. She’s just a bit of a steamroller, you know? She always has been. I wanted to be moved in and settled before I told her.”

“So it’s harder for her to uproot you.”

“Yeah, exactly.” He swept a hand across the fluffy feathers that always fell into his face. “Exploration and adventuring are in my blood, I _want_ to do those things, but I want to do them on my own terms, you know? Scrooge and Della get so caught up in their ideas and what they want to do – I just need a little space to do my own thing.”

“I can understand that,” Letitia said. “I can’t even tell you how much of a relief it was when Mum finally decided to move back to the city. Obviously she wants to be close to the duckling when she hatches, but I think small-town life was getting to her, and it was driving me mad. I just wanted a little room to do my own thing!”

“When is the duckling due to hatch, anyway?” Donald asked. “Have you got a name yet?”

“We’re thinking Webbigail,” Letitia said, smiling. “Shouldn’t be more than another week or two before she hatches.”

Donald opened his mouth to respond, but before he could a car came to a screeching stop outside, and he and Letitia looked at each other, both knowing who it was before they even heard the door open.

“ _Donald!”_

\--

“Uncle Scrooge and I had been working on a project,” Della told Dewey, not quite looking him in the eye. “We wanted to crack interdimensional travel, and we thought Gravity Falls was the key. It turned out that we were right.”

“So you’ve been in another dimension?” Huey asked. He looked torn between academic interest in where she’d been and hesitance to engage her in too much conversation.

Louie hadn’t said anything in a while, and Donald quietly pulled him into a hug. He could feel the boy taking slow, shaky breaths, as if he were trying to calm himself. Donald knew from experience that Louie wouldn’t want that addressed aloud, especially in front of other people, so he just kept an arm around him, stroking his shoulder in small but soothing circles.

“I have,” Della confirmed. “Your – Donald didn’t know about the project for a while. He moved out of the house after college, and didn’t really seem to want to have anything to do with us.”

Huey broke his attention from Della for a moment to look at Donald, who was watching his sister but not making eye contact. “That’s not why I left.”

“I know that now.”

“Your father travelled for a while, without us,” Scrooge cut in. He was focused on the boys, but his eyes flicked over to Della when he referred to Donald. “You boys were laid when Donald was in Brazil, while your aunt and I worked on our interdimensional portal.”

\--

“Eggs?” repeated Donald. “You’re not serious.”

“I’m so serious, Donnie!” Della said. She dragged him by the hand up to their – _her_ – room upstairs. Three large eggs sat together in a crib under a heat lamp. “We’ve named them already, too – Hubert, Dewford, and Llewellyn.”

“Those are terrible names.”

“They’re great names! Look, Carl and I are looking to get our own place, now, and he’s proposed,” she wiggled her left hand at him, showing off a brand new sparkly ring, “and we’re going to be great parents I can just feel it.”

“You can barely feed yourself, how are you supposed to take care of ducklings, Dell?” Donald pressed. “You’ve spent your whole life travelling the world, you don’t know how to sit still long enough for _kids_.”

“Well, Carl grew up all in one place,” Della said, waving her hand dismissively. “We’ll figure it out.” She held onto the side of the crib tightly with her other hand. “About the travel, though – you and I and Uncle S have seen pretty much the whole world, right?”

“I don’t know if I’d say –“

“We’ve been everywhere, Don,” Della continued, “there’s not much left on Earth to be discovered. But the universe is so much bigger than Earth, and Gravity Falls has this funny little pocket that might let us break through beyond our own version of reality. I want to give my boys the universe, so we’re building something new.”

“Oh, Dell,” said Donald. “I go to visit Zé for _two weeks_ , and I come back to ducklings and a new harebrained scheme – tell me you’re being careful?”

“When am I not careful?”

\--

“Della and I disagreed on what her priority should be,” Donald said. “We – we fought.”

“We fought a lot.” Della picked at the carpet. “Donald thought I should focus on you boys, rather than the project. But I was in too deep – so I lied, and said we’d put it on hold.”

\--

_Donald found Della and Scrooge midway through a test of the nearly-finished portal._

_\--_

“I was angry,” Donald said. He caught his fingers up in Louie’s sweater, squeezing the ball of fabric tightly. “Angry that you’d gone behind my back, angry that you were risking your life with the boys on the way, angry that you’d scared Letty out of our lives.” Webby let out a small sound from the back of her throat, apparently involuntarily. She deserved that story, too, but now wasn’t the time. “And you didn’t seem to care.”

\--

_“Some things are bigger than just us, Donald!” Della insisted. “I’m doing this for the boys, for you! We have the chance to expand our view of the universe – we have to take it!”_

\--

“I cared,” Della said in a quiet voice. “I cared so much. But it was too important.”

“More important than your unhatched sons?” Donald prodded, “Than your fiancé? Than your friends?” He glared at her, though his grip on Louie’s sweater relaxed. “Than me?”

\--

_“Letty left town with Frank and Webby, you know,” Donald said. He wasn’t shouting, he was too angry to yell. “She was afraid you were going to destroy the town with this thing – you don’t even know what’ll happen when you power it up.”_

_“It’s not going to destroy the town.”_

_“You don’t know that!” Donald swept a hand across the top of his head, ruffling the fluffy feathers there. “You don’t know that. And your eggs are upstairs.”_

_\--_

“At the time?” Della whispered. “Yes.”

Louie pulled even further away from her, leaning further into Donald. In the corner of his eye, Donald could see Webby squeezing Dewey’s hand as his eyes filled with tears, and Huey pulling his legs up to curl into himself.

\--

_“And if you go through there – you could die, Della,” he said, “you could die and leave your fiancé alone and your eggs without a mother and me – and me without a sister.”_

_“It’s a risk I have to take, Donald.”_

\--

“I know better now,” Della continued, “but I was young and dumb and focused. I wanted to give you boys the universe – I guess I lost track of giving you myself.”

Tears were streaming down Dewey’s face now. He turned toward Huey and buried his face in his brother’s shoulder.

\--

_“It isn’t, though! It really, really isn’t.”_

_“You’ll never understand.”_

_\--_

“So we fought,” Donald repeated, “and I said some things I shouldn’t have.”

“So did I,” said Della. “And then I –“

\--

_Della slammed the final button in the power-up sequence. “I need to do this, Donald.”_

_“Della –“_

_She ran through the control room door into the room where the portal was sparking to life. The control panel was making fizzy, crackly sounds that it was definitely not supposed to make. Della lost her footing as the portal finally opened – looking like a strange, upright puddle glowing faintly – and she was swept up in a rush of wind as it began to suck everything in._

_“Donald!”_

_\--_

“– I powered up the portal.” Della was picking at the carpet, speaking in a low voice. “It wasn’t ready. We didn’t have the failsafes in place yet.”

“I ran after her, but it was too late.” Donald touched his forehead to the top of Louie’s head for a moment. He looked back at his sister. “I tried to save you.”

“Of course you did, Donnie,” she said, smiling weakly. She looked up at Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby. “I’ve spent the last 13 years travelling the multiverse, trying to find a way home.”

“I’ve been rebuilding the portal,” Scrooge chimed in. “I wanted to make sure it was safer, this time. To make sure I wouldn’t lose anyone else.”

“I’ve been raising you,” Donald added with a shrug. “I didn’t want you to feel – to feel left behind. I should’ve come clean with you the first time you asked who your mom was, but it took a long time to stop being mad.” He sighed. “By the time your Grunkle Scrooge called to tell me he was almost ready to reopen the portal, I was just tired.”

“Aunt Della – didn’t you want us?” Dewey’s voice was quiet, but everyone heard him.

“I thought I did,” Della answered honestly. “But I was twenty-two, and I wasn’t really ready. Donald called me on that, but I didn’t want to hear it.”

“But Dad was twenty-two, too,” said Louie. “Nobody’s ready for triplets. Did you want us or not?”

“I – it’s not that simple.”

“Isn’t it?” Louie said. “Our _other_ dad, our biological dad or whatever, he didn’t want us. Gave us up without a fight.” He sat up straight, fixing Della with a glare. “And you left us.”

“Actions speak louder,” Huey mumbled.

Before Della could answer, the front door crashed open. Everyone jumped at the sound, and Bentina pushed up off of the couch to investigate. She hadn’t even left the room, though, when a familiar voice called out.

“Are you guys okay?” It was Launchpad, Scrooge’s assistant in the Mystery Shack. He lived in town, must have come to check up on the Ducks after the portal had shaken the town up. He stuck his head around the doorframe to the living room.

His eyes skated across Bentina – standing halfway between the couch and the door – to Scrooge sitting very tensely on the couch, to Webby and Dewey all tangled up together on the floor, to Huey whose face was on his knees, to Louie still wrapped in his father’s arms, to Della who looked like she’d just crawled out of a blender.

“We’re fine, Launchpad,” Scrooge said. “How’s your family? Is the town in rough shape?”

“The fam’s alright,” replied Launchpad, still taking in the room. “Town’s seen better days, but it’s seen worse too. Everything got lifted up and tossed around a little.” His kept flicking between Donald and Della. “You know what, this looks kinda heavy. I’m just gonna –“ he gestured toward the front door, “back on out of here. Glad you’re good.”

“Good man,” Bentina said firmly. “I’ll walk you out.”

No one said anything until they’d heard the door slam shut again and Launchpad’s car crunch down the gravel driveway, and seen Bentina return to her place on the couch.

“I’m sorry.” Della shook her head. “You boys deserved better – you got better, I guess.”

“Dell,” Donald said sadly.

“I’d like to get to know you, at least,” she continued. “I know I missed my chance to be your mom thirteen years ago, but I want to be a part of your lives.”

The boys looked at each other, conferring silently. Donald, knowing a thing or two about silent sibling conversation himself, frowned at his sister. He wanted to let her back into the family, of course, or he wouldn’t have come here, but he didn’t want to risk her hurting his kids again – Webby included, all told. Della’s eyes were shining with tears when she looked back at him. He didn’t know what she’d gone through in the other dimensions, but he could tell she was a changed duck, that she’d spent enough time lost and lonely to want to really make amends.

Finally, Louie said in a biting tone, “We’ll consider it.”

Della let out a sigh of relief. “That’s all I need.”


End file.
